Captain America
Marvel Comics has killed one of my favorite characters. Fortunately, comic book death is rarely permanent, so we're really just on the clock for his resurrection. Be that as it may, it's a reason to look back at the legacy of the character.
One of the things that has always attracted me to the character is that he's represented the American Ideal, as opposed to the American government or - let's face it - the American right.
Cap and the real America stand for Liberty, in its truest sense. He's stood for justice, even when it was unpopular.
As a WWII icon (the cover of his first comic showed him punching Hitler in the jaw), Cap was very much of the "Greatest Generation." He symbolized America's fight against tyranny, and fight for social justice. He was a Social Security American.
And the character's 'powers' were a part of his character. I mean that in the sense that he had no powers. He couldn't fly. Bullets could kill him (as they recently succeeded in doing). He was tough because he made himself tough with a little help from a serum that upped his physique to the level of an Olympic athlete - but no more.
Every fight for Cap was, then, life or death. Any of the villains he fought had a chance to kill him. They didn't need lasers or intricate death traps - a 9mm would do it. Cap relied on his wits and bravery.
He represented the smart America, the America that won the Cold War because the buttoned-up repressed and censored Russians couldn't match wits with their free-thinking opponents. We didn't win the Cold War with Superman - by bowling them over with our unmatched power. We won with Cap and the battle of ideas.
Oh, how times have changed. And it's somewhat fitting that Cap has been gunned down by cowardly sniper. It's the snipers in the Junta that have skulked around our liberties, taking them out in secret. The snipers that have killed our civil liberties are still out there, still stalking us. How is Cap to operate in such a world?
On at least two occasions in his comic history, Cap dropped his costume when the government insisted that they owned the Captain America identity. In both cases (once becoming Nomad and later just The Captain) he rejected political control and set out on his own - ideals intact.
In the recent Marvel series "Civil War," Cap lead the heroes who opposed government registration and control. America - Cap's America - is not a nation of government control of our lives. It's a nation of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
It's fascinating that the cause of 'no government control of our lives' has become a liberal outlook. It used to be, before the Neocon takeover, that conservatives professed to be libertarian and oppose a 'nanny state' where the government intervened in peoples' lives.
Now, it's the liberals who believe in social justice who are opposing a government that cuts food aid to single mothers but spends billions to build databases of our phone calls. Conservative libertarians who believe that the government should neither feed us nor spy on us are nowhere to be found.
Which brings me to my good friend Buckets Goldenberg. He pointed me to this dreck from the wingnutosphere. I don't usually dredge up this kind of flotsam, but clearly this self-professed "Conservative Voice" needs to get to a civics class right away.
He complains about some sort of judicial decision without acknowledging that everyone in America is entitled to their day in court. The fact that we can try someone we don't like and not find them guilty is a sign of the strength of our system, not the weakness of tyranny. What does this Voice think of Chinese or Saudi courts that convict or political and religious grounds alone? Should we emulate them because we don't like what a court decided in our open system?
And the very thought of a 'liberal media' is so quaint it threatens to make one smile indulgently. But it's truly an example of how far the US has travelled from the intent of its founders and the beliefs that cause millions to fight and die for it over the centuries.
Try to read this, I dare you:
In a nation that has been hijacked by liberalism and is being slowly destroyed by democrat-ick socialism, it is probably importantly symbolic that with the destruction of the Christian Bible and the traditional holidays recognizing the blessings of God; with the elimination of a Constitution that requires strict interpretation and constructionist action to actually work the way the Founders intended; with the spreading of the liberal religions of Darwinism and Global Warming-ism and with the spreading of immorality through the acceptance of atheism and the homosexual agenda, that Captain America be struck down from a hidden threat on the steps of a court house.
Six years of Republican rule, with the Republican Leader having absolute power, and we're being destroyed by "demicrat-ick socialism?" Like what? The Patriot Act? Taxes on the wealthy and corporations haven't been this low since Eisenhower, and social programs are being starved daily.
The "conservative" alternative is outsourcing everything to private industry. But private firms trying to do government work have been tremendously wasteful - and unaccountable. They've wasted billions in Iraq and New Orleans and can't even say where the money went - only that it didn't go to the people who actually needed it.
As for the "destruction of the Christian Bible," the only people destroying it is those who profess to uphold it (in the right wing political sphere). In America, we separate Church and state. If you want to live in a place that is ruled by a religious order, I invite you to live in Vatican City or Saudi Arabia. This is not that country.
As for the Constitution, it's hard to know where to begin. I wish we had some 'strict constructionists' in the White House. Then we wouldn't hear about a 'unitary executive' or witness the abrogation of habeas corpus. The Constitution does tell us how to govern ourselves. When the administration starts playing 'make-believe' and gives itself unlimited power, we are left with Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.
We are a nation of laws - and those laws apply to everyone, even the president. We never embraced official torture before this Junta.
Atheism and the homosexual agenda and all that - please. If this Voice hasn't grown up enough to realize that American people are free to live their lives and hold their own beliefs, then there's little hope for him.
I don't get into all this just to bash the Voice - that's pointless. What it demonstrates is a fundamental misunderstanding of America and American values. It used to be that someone writing these things would be marginalized and shamed as the crackpotism that it represents. Not in today's America.
Now, the intolerance against gays and atheists and non-Christians is acceptable. People used to have some shame about not believing in scientific fact. Now it's okay to rant against "Darwinism and Global Warming-ism."
The nation has embraced its stupidity and its bigotry.
But Captain America never did.
One of the things that has always attracted me to the character is that he's represented the American Ideal, as opposed to the American government or - let's face it - the American right.
Cap and the real America stand for Liberty, in its truest sense. He's stood for justice, even when it was unpopular.
As a WWII icon (the cover of his first comic showed him punching Hitler in the jaw), Cap was very much of the "Greatest Generation." He symbolized America's fight against tyranny, and fight for social justice. He was a Social Security American.
And the character's 'powers' were a part of his character. I mean that in the sense that he had no powers. He couldn't fly. Bullets could kill him (as they recently succeeded in doing). He was tough because he made himself tough with a little help from a serum that upped his physique to the level of an Olympic athlete - but no more.
Every fight for Cap was, then, life or death. Any of the villains he fought had a chance to kill him. They didn't need lasers or intricate death traps - a 9mm would do it. Cap relied on his wits and bravery.
He represented the smart America, the America that won the Cold War because the buttoned-up repressed and censored Russians couldn't match wits with their free-thinking opponents. We didn't win the Cold War with Superman - by bowling them over with our unmatched power. We won with Cap and the battle of ideas.
Oh, how times have changed. And it's somewhat fitting that Cap has been gunned down by cowardly sniper. It's the snipers in the Junta that have skulked around our liberties, taking them out in secret. The snipers that have killed our civil liberties are still out there, still stalking us. How is Cap to operate in such a world?
On at least two occasions in his comic history, Cap dropped his costume when the government insisted that they owned the Captain America identity. In both cases (once becoming Nomad and later just The Captain) he rejected political control and set out on his own - ideals intact.
In the recent Marvel series "Civil War," Cap lead the heroes who opposed government registration and control. America - Cap's America - is not a nation of government control of our lives. It's a nation of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
It's fascinating that the cause of 'no government control of our lives' has become a liberal outlook. It used to be, before the Neocon takeover, that conservatives professed to be libertarian and oppose a 'nanny state' where the government intervened in peoples' lives.
Now, it's the liberals who believe in social justice who are opposing a government that cuts food aid to single mothers but spends billions to build databases of our phone calls. Conservative libertarians who believe that the government should neither feed us nor spy on us are nowhere to be found.
Which brings me to my good friend Buckets Goldenberg. He pointed me to this dreck from the wingnutosphere. I don't usually dredge up this kind of flotsam, but clearly this self-professed "Conservative Voice" needs to get to a civics class right away.
He complains about some sort of judicial decision without acknowledging that everyone in America is entitled to their day in court. The fact that we can try someone we don't like and not find them guilty is a sign of the strength of our system, not the weakness of tyranny. What does this Voice think of Chinese or Saudi courts that convict or political and religious grounds alone? Should we emulate them because we don't like what a court decided in our open system?
And the very thought of a 'liberal media' is so quaint it threatens to make one smile indulgently. But it's truly an example of how far the US has travelled from the intent of its founders and the beliefs that cause millions to fight and die for it over the centuries.
Try to read this, I dare you:
In a nation that has been hijacked by liberalism and is being slowly destroyed by democrat-ick socialism, it is probably importantly symbolic that with the destruction of the Christian Bible and the traditional holidays recognizing the blessings of God; with the elimination of a Constitution that requires strict interpretation and constructionist action to actually work the way the Founders intended; with the spreading of the liberal religions of Darwinism and Global Warming-ism and with the spreading of immorality through the acceptance of atheism and the homosexual agenda, that Captain America be struck down from a hidden threat on the steps of a court house.
Six years of Republican rule, with the Republican Leader having absolute power, and we're being destroyed by "demicrat-ick socialism?" Like what? The Patriot Act? Taxes on the wealthy and corporations haven't been this low since Eisenhower, and social programs are being starved daily.
The "conservative" alternative is outsourcing everything to private industry. But private firms trying to do government work have been tremendously wasteful - and unaccountable. They've wasted billions in Iraq and New Orleans and can't even say where the money went - only that it didn't go to the people who actually needed it.
As for the "destruction of the Christian Bible," the only people destroying it is those who profess to uphold it (in the right wing political sphere). In America, we separate Church and state. If you want to live in a place that is ruled by a religious order, I invite you to live in Vatican City or Saudi Arabia. This is not that country.
As for the Constitution, it's hard to know where to begin. I wish we had some 'strict constructionists' in the White House. Then we wouldn't hear about a 'unitary executive' or witness the abrogation of habeas corpus. The Constitution does tell us how to govern ourselves. When the administration starts playing 'make-believe' and gives itself unlimited power, we are left with Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.
We are a nation of laws - and those laws apply to everyone, even the president. We never embraced official torture before this Junta.
Atheism and the homosexual agenda and all that - please. If this Voice hasn't grown up enough to realize that American people are free to live their lives and hold their own beliefs, then there's little hope for him.
I don't get into all this just to bash the Voice - that's pointless. What it demonstrates is a fundamental misunderstanding of America and American values. It used to be that someone writing these things would be marginalized and shamed as the crackpotism that it represents. Not in today's America.
Now, the intolerance against gays and atheists and non-Christians is acceptable. People used to have some shame about not believing in scientific fact. Now it's okay to rant against "Darwinism and Global Warming-ism."
The nation has embraced its stupidity and its bigotry.
But Captain America never did.
posted by fiduciary at 8:52 AM
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